In today’s world of design and manufacturing, three things – product quality, cost, and time to market – determine one’s success over the competition. It’s a constant challenge to increase the first while decreasing the other two.

To maintain its competitive edge, your company needs to employ simulation tools to “peer into the crystal ball’ of manufacturing. By identifying issues before tools are cut or have made it to the production floor, corporations can improve ROI, meet timing targets, and improve quality.

Siemens PLM Variation Analysis (VSA) is a powerful dimensional analysis tool used to simulate manufacturing and assembly processes and to predict the amounts and causes of dimensional variation. VSA can help reduce the negative impact of variation on product dimensional quality, cost and time to market before a single prototype is manufactured.

Previous episodes of this webinar series have helped us to toddle along in our use of 3D Tolerance Analysis with Variation Analysis (VSA) software. Now it’s time to take some major strides and explore some advanced features.

We will begin this episode by reviewing and re-emphasizing a few major points of emphasis from Episode 2 including Geometric Solution’s 10-Step Process in Dimensional Engineering, the cost of poor Dimensional Quality, Siemens PLM Variation Analysis (VSA), and Building VSA models.

All tolerance analysis tools apply tolerances to “rigid body” 3D CAD files. VSA does more. It now includes a built-in Finite Element Analysis (FEA) solver. This feature allows users to digitally “flex” the rigid bodies – to simulate real life tolerance problems and situations. For example, welding sheet metal: The FEA solver can simulate the additional variation of a part being deformed while clamped as well as the variation of the part “springing back” when unclamped.

An additional feature, VSA supports kinematics linkages and movements and assembly methods. This allows users to move and cycle parts through their ranges of motion, and to determine the effects such motion might have on assemblies.

Once we learn about the advanced features, it will be time for a demonstration of the software at work.

Finally, and as always, we’ll develop an understanding of the business value of VSA software by examining a case study. In this episode the study will revolve around the production of a chassis module with moving suspension parts.

The ability to troubleshoot dimensional analysis in the design stage for products with moving parts is a powerful tool, indeed. Please join us to see how you can add it to your company’s digital toolbox.